Lecture MW 11:15am-12:05pm
Discussion F 10:10-11:00am

Many of us tend to think of the process of communication as going
something like this: (1) we get an idea, (2)we put that idea into
words, (3) we send those words to another person, and (4) that other
person unpacks the words to find the idea that we put into them. In
this view, “communication” is a sort of container for ideas, or a
handy way to transmit data from one place to another. This way of
thinking focuses our attention not on the “communication” but on the
ideas it contains. The words themselves (or the images, or the
sounds, or whatever) that are used to transport the information are
of no particular interest. In fact, from this point of view, the
very best or ideal form of communication would not be noticeable at
all. It would be transparent -- a clear, concise, and simple conduit
through which ideas and data travel from one human brain to another.
This course is designed to challenge these assumptions. This course
urges you to see that communication is never merely a neutral
container for data and ideas that are created somewhere else.
Rather, data and ideas cannot exist outside of communication.
Communication constructs them, whether through film, speech, or
performance. Human communication does not make data and ideas
portable -- it makes them possible. A central thesis of this course
is that communication and culture are indissolubly linked, each
inventing the other. The purpose of this course is three-fold.
First, it is intended to introduce you to the unique perspective
provided by the combined interests and talents of the Communication
& Culture faculty. Our department brings together scholars with
interests in Rhetoric and Public Culture, Performance and
Ethnographic Studies, and Film and Media, and this course explores
some of the ways that these fields of study are interrelated.
Second, this course is intended to prepare you for the work that
will be expected in higher-level courses in the department, by
beginning to acquaint you with some of the habits of thought and
methods of study that will characterize those courses. Finally, I
believe strongly that citizens who learn to understand communication
in the way presented in this course are infinitely better equipped
for contemporary life than those who think of communication as
merely a way to transport data. Communication is not merely
a “skill” to be learned. Communication is not a set of “rules” to be
memorized, nor is it a set of “theories” to be applied. It is,
rather, the study of the ways that human beings invent, deliberate,
accept, and reject possible beliefs, values, and actions.
Communication is the way that humans make their world. Fittingly,
this course does not consist of a set of “facts” that must be
memorized, but instead presents a relatively wide range of readings
in a variety of genres and asks you to think about them as
statements in an on-going conversation about human communication. In
that sense, this course is cumulative. Ideas, theories, and
vocabularies are presented because they build, expand, comment upon
or in some cases contradict — other ideas, theories, and
vocabularies presented in the course. Never is an idea intended to
be self-contained, or unrelated to the rest of the course. Indeed,
much of the work of the course involves making connections between
and among the readings.